The competition sees 10 of the season's best goals judged by a panel of the BBC show's presenters, including Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson.

Blue Square's spokesman Alan Alger said: "We're not saying any of the Match of the Day team are responsible but the market seems to suggest that the goal-of-the-season result has been leaked somewhere.

"At one stage, the number of bets we were taking on Adebayor was comparable to the amount we were taking on the Champions League Final a couple of weeks ago. It was crazy.

"Even when we cut his odds to 1-5, people were still betting on him. In our experience, punters only bet like that when they know the result.

"We had Cristiano Ronaldo's free-kick against Portsmouth as the favourite, followed by his back-heel against Aston Villa, but we will be amazed if Adebayor doesn't win it now."

A BBC spokeswoman said: "The panel made their decision last Wednesday in accordance with our rules. "We have no evidence to suggest that there has been a leak but if there is evidence, we will investigate."